Random freezes with windows 7 - 64 bit

Hi all,

I concur with JamesBurlis.

I had been stable for some weeks until lock-ups suddenly started again a few days ago. Unlike some others, I could still move my mouse when the system locked up and in the early stages of a lockup I could sometimes also open a Task Manager window.

On one occasion I induced a freeze whilst doing a large(1.4Gb) copy from USB memory device to hard disk., I tried to browse elsewhere in Windows Explorer and brought the whole thing to a standstill.

However, after applying all the measures recommended things settled down again.

The most recent lockups started when I left the machine idle for an hour or so. After hitting the reset, this time I couldn't even get the thing to start. It would hang during the Windows load and eventually wouldn't even get past the UEFI page. It was almost like a thermal problem.

So I left it for a few days, then tried again. Windows wanted to run the boot repair, but that claimed it couldn't fix the problem. I then re-booted once more and it loaded. However, within 2 minutes things were seizing up again. This time I was able to load the Task Manager and out of desperation I started killing some of the minor tasks, like Lightscribe etc.

I have Roxio Creator 2011 Special Edition installed, which I don't use very often. As soon as I killed a couple of the monitor tasks related to that, everything sprang back into life.

At the core, I am sure the flavour of freezes I experience is down to some sort of file or driver conflict, although I am equally sure that there are probably about a dozen different problems within the whole "Windows7 Freezing" syndrome.

Trouble is, there isn't really a serious alternative for the average Joe who doesn't care much for Apple or Google and can't be bothered to learn Linux and teach the family!

Onwards and upwards brothers!

Thanks for the detailed info Squeeky!

My stability is improved since all my efforts documented in previous posts, but not completely gone. I may start going after the hotfixes you listed.

But honestly, I'm about worn down. I have software sitting that I am afraid to install and 'activate' on this machine for fear of having to negotiate my license back when I am finally forced to start over with a new motherboard/cpu/memory. Even one freeze a week has me hesitant to install anything new.

I love tweaking a machine for performance, but not for stinking stability. The freezes have almost won...

I installed Windows 7 Ultimate, x64 on October 27, 2009, and my system is configured to operate 24/7.  Since then, I have experienced a number of system “freezes.”  As there are different definitions in this thread of a “freeze”, for me, it means:

• Image on screen, but the keyboard and mouse are non-responsive
• It is often (but not always) accompanied by solid/steady illumination of the HDD activity light
• No background CPU processes are running
• It is NOT a BSOD
• No log file/dump is created
• The only recovery solution is to restart the system (hard reset).
• The Event Viewer reports (upon system restart) that “Windows was not properly shut down.”  This is the same message that would be generated if the power went out.  It does, however, give the time of the freeze.
• The freezes are seemingly random, and there is no apparent correlation with any system activity (the majority have occurred while the system is unattended … often in the middle of the night).
• The system never froze while there was significant CPU activity.

My system (which I built) is massively tweaked and overclocked (an i7-920 CPU, overclocked from 2.67 GHz to 4.2 GHz, on air).  In the beginning, many of the freezes were clearly associated with working out the BIOS settings for a stable overclock but, even then, I don’t believe I ever experienced more than 3 freezes/day.

After about May 2010, I was able to obtain sufficient stability that my system would freeze only every 6 weeks or so (still unacceptable for a system which is to provide 24/7 availability).  Once it froze, it might freeze again in the next day or two, but then it would be stable for another 6 weeks before freezing again.  The infrequency makes diagnosis difficult.

However, now my system has not frozen for the past 12 weeks (my last freeze was on November 21, 2011 @6:23a – I was asleep at the time), and I am hopeful that the problem has been resolved.

System:

• Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P motherboard, with a modded F14q beta BIOS (modded to update device ROMs)
• 6 GB RAM
• ATI HD 4770 graphics card
• 3 Seagate SATA hard drives (not in RAID)

Windows is fully patched (via Windows update) and all of the device drivers are up to date.  In addition, I maintain/monitor an RSS feed for the Microsoft “hotfixes” for Windows 7 (patches which are released/available from Microsoft, but which are NOT distributed via Windows update until they are incorporated into and released as part of a service pack).  I have installed the following hotfixes *after* SP1: KB2409416-v2-x64, KB2411000-v2-x64, KB2458000-v2-x64, KB2459492-v2-x64, KB2465772-x64, KB2494427-x64, KB2496400-x64, KB2510636-x64, KB2515325-x64, KB2519550-x64, KB2525949-x64, KB2526028-x64, KB2526870-x64, KB2529073-x64, KB2529825-x64, KB2534985-x64, KB2535121-x64, KB2540175-x64, KB2541119-x64, KB2545479-x64, KB2545698-x64, KB2555392-x64, KB2574501-x64, KB2575077-x64, KB2580442-x64, KB2582112-x64, KB2582203-x64, KB2589986-x64, KB2603229-x64, KB2617202-v5-x64, KB2619291-x64, KB2627052-x64, KB2634328-x64, KB2635500-x64, KB2637692-x64, KB2638018-x64, KB2639077-x64, KB2639824-x64, KB2649868-x64, KB949843-v2-x64, KB973640-x64.

The patches are listed in numerical order, not in order of installation. I do not represent that all of them are relevant to my freezing problem … they are simply all of the patches that I have installed.

To address some of the other “solutions” listed in this thread:

• My antivirus is (and has always been) aVast!  I also use Windows Defender.
• I once tried adjusting the power management options (including preventing the HDDs from spinning down), but that didn’t provide a solution.
• While I installed KB2575077 (on October 11, 2011), that (alone) did not resolve my freezing (as the system froze again on November 19 and 21).
• My primary browser is Firefox (I am in the “beta” channel). I don’t believe the freezes are browser-related.

Since the installation of Windows 7, I have had only 1 BSOD, on October 14, 2011, which Event Viewer reported as a “video hardware error.”

My sense is that the solution was in the hotfixes (and quite possibly, a combination of hotfixes), but I’m not really sure.  It is *not* due to any hardware changes or changes in the BIOS or its settings.

I hope that this information is helpful to someone.

Hi Arkinstrocity,

Thanks to you I also have my computer back. I didn't struggle as long as some of the other folks here, only two weeks. I've spent at least 16 hours to isolate the problem of the computer (i7860, windows7 64) frreezes, but no luck.

About three months ago AVG came with an update. This update didn't work on any 64bit system, and they re-released an old version for these systems, with the ability to use the new released virus libraries. On and off I had a few problems, for example while installing software. During installs I got used to inactivate the virusscanner. Now the incredible part (I'm sure some of you will not believe this, and write me off as a daydreamer...):

During the two weeks AVG software was running, but inactive. Every 10 minutes or so I got a freeze. After activating the AVG software no more freezes.

Whatever problem you have, I thank Arikinstrocity for sharing his information, and that be the only reason why I'm replying on his post.

Regards

Leeching forever!